True Love

 Hebrews 11:6 says without faith it’s impossible to please (gratify-to be a source of or give pleasure or satisfaction to) God

Galatians 5:6 says faith works by love (literally, the system of religious truth itself- faith- is energized -worketh- by agape)

1 Corinthians 13:13 boils our relationship with Jesus down to 3 firm things that we must have: faith, hope, and love. Yet, it says both that we must have faith, hope, and agape AND that agape is the greatest of these 3 things that remain!

This chapter describes both what agape is and is not- starting with what it is not. 

1. Speaking in tongues is not love. 
2. The gift of prophecy is not love
3. Gaining scriptural understanding is not love
4. Having faith to believe that all our obstacles that block or interfere with our path will be removed is not love.
5. Being able to give away all I own to help people in need is not love
6. Being able to suffer and die in agony is not love!

All of these things are awesome and awe inspiring things to do!

All of these could (and possibly should) be a part of our walk with God. 

All of these things should flow through us from God almighty into this world. 

But if Love towards God and others is not our true motivation, if all of these things flow through us but we glory and say “look at me! Look what great works I can do”, then other people will be blessed by the doing, but us doing these great acts has no eternal value FOR us at all! 

That’s why it says if we do these great acts without agape, we ARE nothing! 

That’s why when on judgement day, many will say “Lord I’ve done all these wonderful works in your name” he calls them “works of iniquity” and sends them to hell because “he never knew them.” 

The fallen faithful on judgement days true motivations are revealed in their attempted defense: “I’ve done….”

They took Gods work through them and kept the credit for them. 

They gloried in his works rather than giving him all the glory!

This is a love problem that we must allow God to purge out of us!

So what are the symptoms of true agape’?

1. Love suffers long!  

           Makrothumeo- means to be long spirited, forbearing, patient. 

 

1. Love is kind! Shows oneself useful-to act benevolently 
2. Love doesn’t envy! In other words, true love is thankful and content in whatever state it’s in. 
3. Love doesn’t lift itself up!
4. Love isn’t puffed up (pride)
5. Love doesn’t behave unseemly (not according to established standards of good taste)- it always takes the biblical high road 
6. Love Doesn’t seek for itself! What it wants and desires! 
7. Love Isn’t easily angered or exasperated!
8. Love doesn’t think evil (depraved-marked by corruption or evil, having or showing an evil or immoral character: injurious-inflicting or intending to inflict injury,detrimental. Abusive, defamatory)
9. Love Doesn’t celebrate iniquity, but celebrates truth. 
10. Love Bears (endures patiently) all things
11. Love Believes all things. 
12. Love Hopes (expects) all things
13. Love Endures (stays under) all things. 
14. Love never fails (to drop away, to drive out of one’s course, to lose and become inefficient)
15. Love will outlast prophecy, tongues, and knowledge. 

Why? How is all of this possible? How are we supposed to walk , think, and act like this? The bar is set impossibly high!

Answer: 

1 John 4:16

“And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.”

‭‭1 John‬ ‭4‬:‭16‬ ‭KJV‬‬

https://bible.com/bible/1/1jn.4.16.KJV

First we must know and believe that God unconditionally loves us. 

He’s not waiting on us to fail so he can smash us in anger. That’s not his nature. He does punish. He does correct. He does hate evil. 

But he knows we’re going to fail! Yet, as a real loving father picks up his fallen child and medicates the wound that the child’s wrong actions caused, he stands with his hand reached out still- waiting for us to reach to take hold of it and allow him to fix us. 

But that’s not where we stop. 

The answer is the rest of the verse. When we let him pull us up, we must stay (dwell) in God and let God (dwell) in us. 

That was the whole goal of his incarnation. The whole goal of Calvary. The whole goal of his resurrection. The whole goal of Pentecost. And it’s his whole goal in whatever he does or allows in our lives. 

The grand design is for us to live in him and allow him to live in and through us. 

For if we walk IN the spirit we will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. 

Why? 

Because our whole focus will not be on what’s desired by us. Our focus will be on what’s desired by God and what he wants to do through us to bless others and help draw them to him. 

Thats the only way to fulfill 1 Corinthians 13. 

The old song is true. 

It’s all in him. 

Search the scriptures

“Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.”

‭‭John‬ ‭5‬:‭39‬ ‭KJV‬‬

https://bible.com/bible/1/jhn.5.39.KJV

“There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, But the end thereof are the ways of death.”

‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭14‬:‭12‬ ‭KJV‬‬

https://bible.com/bible/1/pro.14.12.KJV

Proverbs 16:25

Many believe they know the way to everlasting life. Many believe their tickets are punched for that awesome ride on the glory train to heaven. 

But are they really going on that ride?

The Sanhedrin (Pharisees, sadducees, scribes, doctors and lawyers of the law) thought they represented the pinnacle of obedience to the system of law that God almighty had put in place through Moses. 

Their clothes were just so. Their prayers were loud and public. They wielded the words of God like a carpenter wields a hammer. 

They were always on the lookout for people who stepped out of line. Always ready to prescribe punishment for perceived transgressions of the laws of God and the rules of the elders. 

But it was this latter part that put them into Jesus crosshairs. 

The Sanhedrin were very adamant about not taking away from the law. But in their zeal, they forgot that the very same law said that we aren’t to add anything to the law either. 

That’s why Jesus told them to look at the scriptures and discover that all of the scriptures (not just the law) testified of him and him alone!

In other words, “you who think you have eternal life need to truly and prayerfully dig into the word of God. For when you really do, you will find me staring back at you!” 

All these scriptures- old and New Testament- point straight to Jesus!

He is the alpha and omega! 

He is the beginning and the end!

He is the bright and morning star!

He is the Lilly of the valley and the balm of gillead!

He is the end all and be all!

He is the creator of all, the savior of all who submit to him, and the judge of all who won’t!

He is the answer to all questions, the question of all answers, and the end of all truth. 

Scientists seek for answers that ultimately point to him. For he is the answer to all that is, all that was, and all that ever will be!

Politicians seek to legislate policy to try and work around him, but as one president put it, “The buck stops here!”

All of history points to him for it is HIS story!

The more they try to dismiss him, the more he stands in their way! Unstoppable, unmovable, and unchangeable!

The more we try and call his ways old and antiquated, the more he steps in and says “I am the way!”

The more we try to change our moral code, still we cannot get away from his still small voice calling to us that we’re headed down the wrong path. 

Whatever interest or entertainment or pleasure we seek to try and divert our attention and drown out his voice, Jesus is still speaking to us in the quiet moments. 

We can never out run him, for he is everywhere. 

We can never outthink him, for he is all knowing. 

We can never outlast him for he is the infinite God!

We can never out flank him for he is the king of kings and lord of lords!

We can never defeat him for he is all powerful!

It does not take 3 gods to defeat one devil!

No sir! It takes the one God of eternity robing himself in flesh and using but the tip of his finger to drive the devil out!

Let the schemers plan. Let the demons scream to scare and control the masses. Let the political elite plot and their followers bind together in unity. 

The scripture says: 

“Though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not be unpunished: But the seed of the righteous shall be delivered.”

‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭11‬:‭21‬ ‭KJV‬‬

https://bible.com/bible/1/pro.11.21.KJV

Jesus is the final authority and answer. 

Though we learn to harness all the power available to us in whatever form throughout the galaxy, it still would not threaten the one who created all of it and more!

Let them manipulate, it won’t matter. 

Let them throw tantrums, it won’t matter. 

Though government seeks to take his place and outlaw his word. It won’t matter. 

The spiritual systems of this world, communism, Catholicism, capitalism, and Islam may believe they can rule the world and defeat Gods true church. It does not matter. 

Let them argue and debate over what they believe to be right: out with the old ways and in with the new. It won’t change Jesus opinions of truth and holiness. 

And he has the final say!

There is one God: Jesus 

There is one truth: his word

There is one way out of all this mess: his way!